I was commenting the other day on the darkness in the new single by Norway’s Ea Othilde but she’s all sweetness and light compared to Denmark’s The Fire Once Lost, which is an Americana/Bluegrass band, led by songwriter Anders Duus.
I recall that last year we featured a song by them, ‘Young when I met you’, a murder ballad waltz which in their traditionally disarming style even eclipsed the violence of Tom Jones’ seminal ‘Delilah’ from the 1960s as the unfaithful spouse that had wronged him and her lover were tracked down and ‘eliminated’ to use the popular buzzword.
Now TFOL return with another up-tempo, dark and energetic bluegrass/folk/Americana murder ballad, ‘the revenge of Jane O’Hanlon’. This one tells another gruesome tale of a murder, followed by a quest for revenge with tragedy to ensue.
Which way around is it in Denmark? Do the Scandi Noir TV cop drama writers get their cue from these songs or vice versa?
Jane isn’t the one doing the revenging by the way; she was the victim and it’s her man who is on the warpath after considering topping himself but being saved by a shepherd boy that had seen what went on.
I won’t recall all the gory details here but he disposes of the responsible gang one by one selectively by cutting out some guy’s eyes before stringing him up; dropping the church bell on a preacher woman’s head; drowning a gunman; and wrestling the last remaining renegade over a canyon.
It’s like Iain Banks’ novel ‘The Wasp Factory’ meets the movie ‘Seven.’
And the BBC would refuse to play it. But so what? It’s all good fun.
(Continues after the Spotify link)
Find him/them on:
Website; https://thefireoncelost.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Thefireoncelost
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thefireoncelost/
